Rant: $5 Drive Thru Nativity

Well, that didn’t take long (me ranting on this new bliggity-blog, that is).

So, I was chatting with Britt moments ago after an evening of holiday shopping and hilarious antics (none of which the other shoppers were too entertained by) via AIM. She’s on one side of the state, I’m on the other … no bueno. She alerted me to the sweet event going on in Taylor, MI this weekend … a Drive-Thru Nativity! Apparently, they have a bunch of actors in ‘biblical’ costumes depicting the birth of Jesus, complete with live animals (like what?! really?! donkeys? manatees?), out in some field somewhere that you can drive through in your car and learn about the Christ child.

Sweet.

I’m all about religious freedom, spreading the good word, loving G-d, and eating cookies (which they news release says they’ll have en force), but one part of this little shindig pisses me off. Ok, two parts.

1. Do we really need to DRIVE through a nativity? Can’t we walk? Are we that f’in lazy these days? Do we have no concern at all for the poor planet or the lungs of those who have to stand idly by (waving like Miss America? smiling? in labor with the baby Jesus?) while you creep along in your 2.3 miles per gallon SUV huffing exhaust fumes. Lame.

2. And, most importantly, I take serious issue with them charging $5 damn dollars to get into this nonsense. Is it traditionally cool to make people pay money to learn about the birth of Christ? Would Jesus be alright with this church raking in the cash in his name? I know, I know, churches do it constantly (reason numero uno why capital C church and I are at odds most of the time), but on Christmas?! To make matters worse, they’re selling “VIP” tickets for extra. So, what? You get in the driving line faster? If you have extra money you deserve to wait less time to be in the truth? Come on! This is probably the direct antithesis of the gospel … in fact, yea … directly contrary to that whole ‘the least of us’ thing and the ‘sell all your shit and give your money to the poor’ that the apostles were down with, and the ‘we don’t need money, we have the L-rd’ blah blah blah.

This is the problem with the Church. Too much people being frickin’ greedy and not enough people giving everything they have to make sure people know the power of following Jesus. This is the best time of year to draw more believers, people who are searching for meaning, looking, waiting for someone to invite them, into the Body of Christ. You don’t do that with cover charges and long lines and (I’m sure) rude ass drivers. Total FAIL, New Hope Assembly of G-d, total utter FAIL.